cause of the illness that I can understand and verify myself? 3) Will this practitioner turn me into a permanent client of the healthcare industry because the procedure will temporarily relieve the symptoms, while causing new health problems? 4) Is the procedure dangerous: will it do more harm than good? 5) Is it likely that the scientific evidence was corrupted by those trying to sell this method? 6) Do I really have a disease that needs to be treated? 7) Is it possible that I am healthy, but the health problem was invented to sell various healthcare products? 8) If the method in question is often called “quackery,” is it possible that it works but is being trashed by powerful competitors? 9) If the treatment method in question is called useless, unproven, or “pseudoscience” in a Wikipedia article, then the method is probably safe, proven, and effective: you need to do so some research in the literature.
To learn more about imperfections of science, see the section “Interpreting evidence from studies on human subjects,” Chapter One, in my other book “How to Become Smarter.” Furthermore, cytotoxic chemotherapy does not make biological sense because it impairs the immune system, and such drugs are often carcinogens themselves. A normally functioning immune system is necessary for defeating and preventing cancer.
Most likely, there is no rigorous scientific proof that the anticancer spices/herbs and physical exercise can cure your specific type of cancer. But, a big but, the three standard cancer treatments (surgical resection, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy) are not supported by rigorous proof either, as mentioned above. Surgical methods are used out of force of habit (in most cases, there is no proof that they cause more good than harm), whereas chemotherapy and radiation therapy are supported predominantly by biased evidence (i.e., proof provided by those who sell these treatments and/or by researchers with conflicts of interest). This problem is compounded by the fact the authors of scientific articles about profitable medical treatments often fail to show their conflicts of interest (or do not show all of them), and readers will have to spend some time to search for this information on their own.
Government agencies tasked with combating cancer routinely manipulate statistics to make themselves look good. With some creative use of statistical methods, a 5-year 90% death rate can be presented as a 5-year 90% relative survival rate. In reality, if you go the conventional route, your prognosis is as dismal today as it was decades ago, with rare exceptions. Physicians have to follow official guidelines (which were installed with the help of the healthcare industry) or else they damage their career. There are many decent oncologists who care about patients and do their best to help them.
Of course, you can combine conventional and the proposed unconventional treatments if they make sense to you. Consult a healthcare professional about this combination. Among conventional treatments, minor surgical interventions (those that do not require general anesthesia), radiotherapy, and targeted chemotherapy are fairly safe and make sense. Systemic (i.e., cytotoxic) chemotherapy is not only useless but harmful in most cases. A major surgical operation is highly dangerous, harmful to your health, and does not address the cause of cancer (the tumor is not the cause of cancer). Can a big tumor shrink or stay relatively harmless for years without surgical removal? Not always, but it can. Do your own research, don’t trust anyone on this topic. The healthcare industry and those physicians that have been bribed by this industry often employ scare tactics as a marketing ploy. If you enhance your immune system, then a large tumor is unlikely to metastasize and will gradually shrink. Haste makes waste. If you want to get rid of cancer overnight, then you may die on the operating table or become a cripple for life, e.g., lose an important organ or body part. You should never hurry with a major operation if you have cancer, especially if you feel well. You need to carefully weigh all the pros and cons. If you feel sick, at least try to achieve a good general state of health and become stronger (as described in this booklet) before you go under the knife if you believe that you must excise your tumor.
If you are wondering about my credentials on this topic, I have a Ph.D. in molecular and cellular oncology and am an author or coauthor of 16 scientific publications.
The text below doesn’t contain literary citations because they make it difficult to use the text-to-speech function of various eReader devices. Studies for each chapter are listed in the Literature section.
Scientifically proven anticancer products (turmeric, vitamin D, black seed, broccoli, and others)
There is plenty of scientific evidence that these products have anticancer effects. Turmeric is supported by the largest amount of scientific evidence, closely followed by vitamin D [link]. I am mentioning black seed (Nigella sativa) and ginseng too because these plant products are known to be effective against many diseases, and there is scientific evidence of anticancer properties as well, albeit much less evidence in comparison with turmeric and vitamin D. Turmeric is believed to be a panacea among Hindus, whereas black seed is thought to be a panacea among Muslims. There is a saying that black seed can cure everything but death. Indeed there is evidence that black seed and its major active ingredient (thymoquinone) are effective against many diseases [link, link]. You can think of turmeric and black seed as universal metabolism normalizers. Normalization of metabolism is what you need with cancer because currently there is growing evidence that cancer is a metabolic disease. You can do some research on the websites Greenmedinfo.com and PubMed.gov. My advice is to learn how to search PubMed.gov correctly.[1]
This scientific evidence is more reliable than the evidence supporting conventional cancer treatments because the researchers who studied these plant products in most cases did not have conflicts of interest. These products are not patented and cannot bring multibillion-dollar profits to corporations. Scientific articles about these anticancer products were not published by ghost writers hired by corporations. The amount of corruption and scientific fraud is not nearly as big as that associated with standard cancer treatments.
You need to study the possible adverse effects of these products and my advice is to use a combination of these products. Even if there is no scientific evidence about your particular type of cancer, you can still take advantage of these beneficial remedies because they are much safer and cheaper than conventional treatments and because anticancer treatments typically are effective against many types of cancer. Note that there are three species of ginseng, American, Siberian, and Korean, and you need to choose the one that has been tested against your type of cancer if possible.
For maximal effectiveness, it is best to consume turmeric in the morning on an empty stomach, 30 min before breakfast: a tablespoon of turmeric powder with a small amount of warm soup or salad. On days when you do not consume turmeric, eat a teaspoon of pulverized black seed or black seed oil with a small amount of warm soup or salad in the morning. For example, you can try the following regimen: three days of turmeric and one day of black seed, and repeat this cycle for as long as necessary (you can do this for life if you like). In addition, consume a tablespoon of cod liver (canned is OK) per day; this is the best source vitamin D. Optionally, brief sun-bathing or UV-tanning sessions (1 minute on four sides) can be included too. This is a different source of vitamin D, and moderate sunbathing also serves as hormesis. Take ginseng extract at noon twice a week. Because turmeric, black seed, and ginseng act against blood coagulation, if you get nosebleeds with this regimen, then reduce your dose twofold. Your diet should be diverse and healthy if you want to normalize your metabolism and beat cancer. If your nutrition consists primarily of junk food, then your chances of winning will be much lower.
If and when you recover from cancer, you may choose to reduce your dose of these products twofold or you can continue the same regimen for life. Many studies show that an active ingredient of one of these plants (i.e., a purified chemical) is effective against cancer. My advice is to consume the whole foods (or crude extracts) instead of purified ingredients. For example, eat turmeric powder added to soup instead of popping curcumin pills. Foods are safer than pure chemicals and should be as effective or even more effective. A pure chemical may fix one problem in your body but will create 10 other problems, this is also true of artificial vitamins. You need vitamins in their natural packaging: as regular foods.